Mazamorra de Camote

the oldest continuous sweet potato preparation in the Americas: a slow-cooked Peruvian pudding of mashed camote dissolved in water with chancaca, cinnamon, cloves, and dried fruit into a smooth, amber-coloured porridge served warm or cool

Origin: Ica Valley and the Coastal Valleys of Peru

From the journey of Sweet Potato.

The word mazamorra denotes a broad family of Latin American thick puddings and gruels made from starchy bases, maize, purple corn, and, oldest of all, the sweet potato of the Andean coast. The Peruvian mazamorra morada, made from purple maize, is today the more celebrated of the two, but the camote version is the ancestral form, a preparation that descends in unbroken continuity from the cooking of the Nazca and pre-Inca civilisations who cultivated Ipomoea batatas in these coastal valleys for eight thousand years before the Spanish arrived with their cane sugar and aromatic spices. The Spanish contribution, chancaca (the raw, pressed-cane sugar block, called piloncillo in Mexico and panela in Colombia), cinnamon, and cloves, transformed a simple starchy root porridge into the fragrant, amber-coloured pudding that still appears at Peruvian family tables and in the picarones stalls of Lima's markets as a seasonal dessert. The sweet potato's natural sugars caramelise slightly as the pudding cooks, and the cloves deepen its sweetness with a warm, slightly astringent note that keeps the dish from cloying. Mazamorra de camote is a food of the domestic sphere rather than the restaurant, made in large pots by grandmothers for Sunday lunch or festival days. Its Andean cultural weight lies precisely in its antiquity and its ordinariness: it was the food that sustained the coastal peoples through thousands of years before any other cuisine arrived to complicate it.

Ingredients

Pudding

800 g orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3 cm chunks
1.5 litres water
150 g chancaca (raw cane sugar block) or dark muscovado sugar
1 cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
1 strip orange peel, pith removed
60 g dried apricots, roughly chopped
60 g raisins
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch), dissolved in 2 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 pinch fine salt

To Serve

1 tsp ground cinnamon, for dusting

Method

Place the sweet potato chunks in a large saucepan with the water, cinnamon stick, cloves, and orange peel. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a steady simmer. Cook uncovered for 20–25 minutes until the sweet potato is completely tender and breaking apart.
Remove and discard the cinnamon stick, cloves, and orange peel. Using a potato masher or the back of a large spoon, mash the sweet potato pieces directly in the cooking liquid until largely smooth. Some texture is fine; this is a rustic pudding, not a cream.
Add the chancaca (breaking it up with your hands), the dried apricots, and the raisins. Stir over medium heat until the chancaca has completely dissolved, about 3–4 minutes.
Stir in the cornflour mixture and the lemon juice. Continue to cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for a further 10–15 minutes until the pudding has thickened to a consistency that coats the back of a spoon and mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon. Add the salt.
Serve warm or at room temperature in individual bowls, dusted with ground cinnamon. The pudding can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 3 days; it sets more firmly when cold and may need a tablespoon of warm water stirred through when reheating.

Notes

Chancaca is available from Latin American grocery shops and increasingly from larger supermarkets; it is sold as a solid round or conical block and should be broken up before adding. Its flavour (raw, molasses-rich cane sugar with a faint smokiness) is irreplaceable in this dish. Dark muscovado sugar is a workable substitute but less complex. The dried apricots and raisins are the traditional additions, but dried peaches, dried figs, or dried prunes can all be used according to what is available; the dried fruit swells in the pudding and becomes very tender. This is a naturally gluten-free and dairy-free dish.

The Gastrographer

Name: Mazamorra de Camote
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Ica Valley and the Coastal Valleys of Peru
Ingredients: 800 g orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3 cm chunks; 1.5 litres water; 150 g chancaca (raw cane sugar block) or dark muscovado sugar; 1 cinnamon stick; 4 whole cloves; 1 strip orange peel, pith removed; 60 g dried apricots, roughly chopped; 60 g raisins; 1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch), dissolved in 2 tbsp cold water; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 pinch fine salt; 1 tsp ground cinnamon, for dusting

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control